Month: March 2018

President Trump’s administration rescinded a federal policy that allowed transgender students to use washrooms that matched their gender. Before the announcement, The U.S Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos met a representative of the transgender and warned of the expected announcement. An aide of Betsy Devos went further to assure the representative that she had cautioned against the move. However, she showed no signs of differences between the president and her office during the announcement. Later, Betsy would state that the rescinded policy was an example of the overreaches made during Barrack Obama’s administration.

Nevertheless, people close to Betsy warns against the thought that she swims with the current. The current situation may have revealed her side that is publicly gracious even in the event of setbacks. However, she has proven to be self-driven, relentless, and effective in the political field on several occasions. Her family fortune went further to aid in influencing legislation that sought to benefit the common man.

Her entry to the inner circle of the Trump’s administration came with no experience in the government. On the other hand, her history with the current president was minimal. With that in mind, she was at a disadvantage as she battled the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions who has years of experience in matters related to Washington. Jeff is a former senator and has a long history with the president.

According to Randi Weingarten, people tend to underestimate her due to her personality. However, she is dangerous especially when she sets her eyes on a particular objective. All in All, it’s expected that she will learn to weave the ropes and get her way. Her first act after she was appointed was to meet the two leaders of the teacher unions. According to Mr. McNeilly, oppositions only acts to strengthen her.

Besides her political inclination, Betsy Devos associates with Dick and Betsy Devos Family foundation. Through the institution, she donates to several philanthropic activities. Betsy and her husband Dick Devos contributes towards the improvement of education, nurturing art and talents in children, and the health sector. Since their entry into the world of philanthropy, they have donated an estimate of $139 million. They have also committed millions to the construction of recreational halls in Grand Rapids.

The prisons across the world have a big pain since the telecommunication revolution began in the early 2000s. It is none other than the access of contraband phones by the inmates inside the prison, and it was a clear threat for the security and safety of prisons, other inmates, prison officials, and the public. While coming to the United States, I can confirm that the situation is no different. Many news reports have revealed the vulnerability created by the illegal phones inside the prisons. The biggest example of contraband phone threat is none other than the story of former jail official, Robert Johnson of Lee Correctional Institution.

While he was serving at the South Carolina-based correction center in 2010, Johnson had to seize one package of contraband products to a prisoner, who was also a gangster. Within a few days, Johnson had to face a number of deadly gunshots at him home from an unknown attacker. The investigations revealed that Johnson was targeted by an ex-prisoner who was also a colleague of the inmate whose packages seized. Strangely, the inmate was contacting his friend using a contraband phone, which the authorities could not track and take the sufficient precautionary measures.

I can say that it was one of the biggest lapses of security to the prison officials during those years. My further research into this serious issue revealed that even the relatives of the prison officials had to face death threats and attacks for implementing strict prison rules. In all those cases, contraband phones acted as the channel for communication between criminals and the inmates. After recovering from the attacks, Johnson started campaigning and working on initiatives that are aimed to control contraband phones. He spoke his experience and expressed his thoughts on the need of controlling contraband in various stages.

Additionally, Johnson partnered with Securus Technology, an innovation firm in the prison technology environment, as an independent consultant to contribute its mission to develop a Wireless Containment System. The firm came up with the product in early 2016, and I can say that it was a real innovation in the industry. When Johnson had to testify the needs of a controlling system for contraband in front of FCC in early 2017, he also explained the effectiveness of the WCS. Impressed upon its features, the officials of FCC gave the nod for lightening the regulations for the jails to adopt the technology.

It means that the jail authorities would have a simplified procedure to adopt the call interdiction technology connecting with network carriers and other parties involved in the loop. I observed that the WCS had deployed in some eight prisons in the country since July 2016. The data published by Securus in July 2017 revealed that the smart interdiction system could block nearly 1.8 million calls during the period.